Government Cutting Health and Safety Red Tape

The BBC reports that ministers are announcing plans today that will exempt thousands of businesses from health and safety inspections.

Under new rules, to be introduced in April 2013, Health and Safety checks will no longer be routinely carried out on premises considered to be low risk, like shops, as the Government plans to scrap or change more than 3,000 regulations in an effort to cut bureaucracy and save companies millions of pounds.

Ministers say the checks can place an unnecessary burden on some businesses, but some trade unions say it risks the safety of employees and customers.

Businesses will only face health and safety inspections if they are operating in areas deemed to be higher-risk, such as construction and food production, or if they have had an accident or a track record of poor performance.

Whilst this sort of thing is always welcomed by businesses, we at Conservatory Blinds Ltd know that this is an area that is often overlooked by many companies in the blinds industry and that more specific requirements or training should be provided.

Every day we see (or hear) evidence of appallingly dangerous working conditions being adopted by blind fitters, simply because they are subcontractors working on a very tight price, so they have to rush their work and cut corners when it comes to safety.

Having carried out detailed Health and Safety Training for our employees, especially for such common areas such as working at height in a conservatory, we know that there is a need for taking the very generic legislation and turning it into something much more specific to our work.

Without this we know that any training would have little or no relevance to our staff, and therefore run the risk of assuming that we are complying with the law, but would actually be neglecting the safety of the people that work here, as well as our customers.

If you have anyone work in your home, ask for their Public Liability Insurance and make sure that they are providing a safe work environment. When it comes to Health and Safety, the consequences of dealing with cowboys just doesn’t bear thinking about...